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13 January 2013

Airbus intervention plan: from monitoring to the rescue of suppliers, through the support.

In a report
published in The Manufacturer, the
different types of intervention by Airbus are explained by Mr. Günter Butschek Airbus
COO.

While
operational support is common, it’s unusual for Airbus to provide financial
support to suppliers. Most of Airbus suppliers are tier one companies of a
critical mass “The base assumption is
that our suppliers are in a stable financial condition,” says Mr Butschek.

But Airbus
does not take this entirely for granted.“Financial capability gets intensely
discussed and monitored, by a
kind of ‘watch tower’. We monitor whatever financial information is accessible
and available to us, so we get an early warning in case a supplier might
experience some financial issues or get into financial trouble.”

If this
happens Butschek says a case-by-case decision is made as to what extent Airbus
will support the supplier. “There are
plenty of opportunities before it comes to the worst,” he states.

But far more
suppliers have struggled to comfortably keep pace with the rate increase, than
have had financial issues.

“We carefully monitor the performance
of the suppliers. We perform regular audits to gain a deep understanding of
what are the weaknesses and strengths –and what is our contribution to the
problem? Butschek
says.

Having
analysed the specific supplier situation, Airbus sets up a comprehensive set of
actions where the ‘problem suppliers’ issues have the most commonality.

“We
always hold the supplier accountable but we offer our support and we even make
our support mandatory if required” Günter Butschek

Based
on the article “Airbus UK: Demand and supply” published in “The manufacturer”